FreshCheck funding enables expansion into healthcare applications
4 Jan 2026
Imperial College London Startup FreshCheck has been awarded £150,000 to aid the rollout of its hygiene verification technology.
The firm’s colour change swab system was developed from a laboratory project to provide a low cost means of microbial contamination testing for the food industry.
It has won support from the British Design Fund, whose partner organisations include UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) and the Brunel University-allied Central Research Laboratory.
The funds will help underwrite FreshCheck’s development of new applications designed to tackle healthcare associated infections.
CEO Dr John Simpson (pictured) commented: “Microbial contamination is a global issue, from food safety to antimicrobial resistance. For too long, reliable hygiene testing has been limited to those who can afford the complex or costly tools.
“Our mission is to make contamination visible with easy-to-use, affordable products that anyone can use to protect consumers and patients with easy to interpret results and cleaning data analytics.”
FreshCheck’s system, validated by analysis and testing consultants Campden BRI, combines swabs with an integrated app and web platform to enable recording, analysis and hygiene verification in real time and on site.
CEO of British Design Fund CEO Damon Bonser commented: “FreshCheck exemplifies the kind of purposeful innovation we look for, where practical design meets real-world impact. Their approach to hygiene verification is timely, scalable, and rooted in solving a genuine challenge.”
FreshCheck was founded in 2015 by Imperial PhD alumni Simpson and Alex Bond.
